


Edge of despair

by Golddude22



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 10:23:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29649903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golddude22/pseuds/Golddude22
Summary: When Rex is badly injured on the battlefield and they're cut off from the the rest of their forces, Ahsoka is forced to try carry him back to base, hoping he doesn't die on the way.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43





	Edge of despair

**Author's Note:**

> A request from one of the Discord servers I'm on.

Mud.

Ahsoka hated mud.

She hadn't before they'd landed on this world, but after three weeks of trudging through ruined farm land, trying to fight a war in the thick, sticky mud this planet was covered in, she hated the stuff. 

Which was why she was less than happy as Rex pulled her out of the pool of the stuff she'd fallen into while they were moving to ambush a droid platoon that had come near their position, on the approaches to the town they were about to take.

“Thanks,” she grumbled, trying to wipe as much of the stuff off as she could.

“You're welcome Commander,” Rex said and she could practically feel him grinning under his helmet.

“It's not funny,” she growled, flicking a handful of mud at him. “Do you know how hard this is to get out of clothes?”

“Nope,” Rex chuckled, not evening flinch as the mud hit him, and his armour was so dirty anyway that nobody would notice a few extra spots. “But look on the bright side, now you can blend in better with the environment.”

“Easy for you to say,” she shot back. “All you have to do is take off your armour at the end of a battle, whereas I have to find a way to have a shower in a camp with no running water.”

“Well, I could always help you...” Rex offered. “It rains enough here that I'm sure we could catch some and there's plenty of spare buckets around, just need to find a big enough tub and-”

He stopped as another hand full of mud bounced off his helmet.

“Tempting as that is,” Ahsoka said sarcastically. “I'm gonna pass, you may be my boyfriend now, but after that stunt you pulled last time, it's not happening again.”

“That was an accident,” Rex said apologetically. “I thought it was the hot water.”

Ahsoka just rolled her eyes and turned away.

“Come on, that platoon will be here any minute now, we can... continue this later,” she smirked over her shoulder.

“I look forward to it,” Rex replied quietly, moving into position beside her.

They didn't have to wait long.

Barely two minutes later, the droid platoon rounded the bend and began to approach them.

“On my signal,” Ahsoka whispered into her comm.

The droid platoon reached them and Ahsoka waited until they were almost past before giving the order.

“Now!” She yelled, igniting her sabers and leaping down to attack them.

Rex and her men opened fire as well, hammering the platoon, leaving only a few for her to destroy when she reached them.

Further up their line, the heard the sounds of battle begin, as her Master lead the bulk of their forces against the city's defences.

“Come on!” She yelled, charging towards the defences that were their targets.

Her men charged after her, weaving their way through the shell holes from earlier battles and dodging blaster fire.

She quickly reached the defences and charged over, cutting apart every droid in reach and using the force to throw several others that weren't.

Rex soon followed behind her, as did the rest of her men and they quickly cleared the first line of defences.

Barely pausing to catch their breath, they charged the next line and had practically destroyed the platoon holding the defences when a voice came over her comm. 

_“Fall back!”_

Ahsoka heard her Master's order, but couldn't quite believe it, they were winning this fight, why was he ordering a retreat?

She finished off the last droid of the platoon and raised her own comm.

“Master, did I hear that right? Why are we retreating, we're winning.”

_“I know, but we won't be for long. The Separatists just landed a massive amount of reinforcements, we're going to get overwhelmed if we stay here, we need to fall back to a more defensive position.”_

“Where did they come from, I though Master Obi-Wan's fleet was covering us?” she asked worriedly.

 _“They brought in more fleet reinforcements as well and those are keeping his cruisers busy while their troop ships land reinforcements. Master Windu and Aayla's fleets are on their way to reinforce Obi-Wan's, but until they arrive, we're on the back foot and we can't afford to lose our foothold on this world otherwise it'll cost us even more lives to regain it,”_ Anakin went on.

“Alright Master, we're falling back,” she said.

 _“Good, I'll see you back at base,”_ Anakin replied and she'd just hung up when a droning noise filled the air.

“Bombers incoming!” Someone shouted.

“Take cover!” Rex ordered, dashing for a trench line near a house in the position they'd just taken.

Ahsoka wasn't close enough to reach it before the bombers arrived, so instead she dove into a nearby shell hole, landing heavily on her side as she did, hearing something crunch beneath her.

But she didn't have time to worry about it now as the Hyena bombers screamed overhead, making her smirk slightly as she recalled something Hardcase had told her yesterday about Hyenas.

A smirk that quickly disappeared as bombs began falling around her, sending up fountains of dirt, rubble and men as they exploded on impact and her heart clenched in shared agony as she heard the screams of her men as they got hit, felt their pain as they died.

Then a bomb landed close to her position, detonating with a deafening explosion and throwing her into the other side of her hole, leaving her dazed and her montrals ringing as they struggled to recover from the shock wave.

Eventually, the bombs stopped falling. 

Ahsoka picked herself up, wincing slightly at all the new cuts and bruises she'd received from flying shrapnel and looked dazedly around.

She couldn't see any of her men that were alive anywhere nearby.

“Rex?” She called out, voice sounding funny in the sudden silence. “Anyone?”

There was no response.

Getting concerned that she was the only one left alive from her platoon, she tried to comm Rex, but discovered her comm was broken, probably what had crunched when she landed, she thought in disappointment.

So instead, she reached out with the force, trying to find any survivors among her men.

There was nothing nearby and that saddened her as she reached out further and further until finally, she sensed a week life force that felt vaguely like Rex, but she couldn't be sure, about forty metres away.

She hurried in it's direction and stopped when she reached what was left of the house Rex had taken shelter by.

“Rex, can you hear me?!” She shouted.

There was still no response, but she felt the life force react to her voice.

“Hang on,” she shouted. “I'm gonna dig you out.”

She started digging furiously at the spot she could sense what she hoped was Rex, occasionally using the force to move the heavier chunks, not stopping until she unearthed a white and blue shoulder.

Letting out a relieved gasp, she dug faster until she'd uncovered the rest of Rex and pulled him out, carefully in case he had spinal injuries, and laid him out on the ground beside her.

He was in bad shape, with more injuries than she wanted to count, the worst of which was a large piece of shrapnel sticking out of his side.

And she didn't even want to think about head injuries, which he must have, judging by the way his helmet was almost cracked in two.

“Rex? Can you hear me?” She asked.

She got a muffled groan in response and let out another relieved sigh.

“Don't worry Rex, I'm gonna patch you up, then I'll get us out of here,” she said and got what might have been a grunted acknowledgement back.

After a moment to check and make sure there wasn't any immediate danger around, and to check if his comm was still functioning, but it wasn't, she eased his helmet off and tossed it aside, it was useless now anyway and pulled his medkit off his belt, opening it up and pulling out every thing she might need.

First she grabbed the painkiller and stimulant shots she'd seen Kix use countless times and injected him with them.

Almost immediately, he let out a groan of relief and became more coherent, being able to actually focus on her as she got to work on his chest wound, where the nasty looking piece of shrapnel had slipped between his armour plates and buried itself just below his ribcage.

“Hey,” she said, managing a slight smile.

“Hey,” he mumbled back. “What happened?” 

“Bombing run, the house got hit and buried you in rubble, I dug you out,” Ahsoka informed him as she carefully removed the piece of shrapnel from his chest. "You were lucky not get any spinal injuries," she added, quickly cleaning the wound and putting a bacta patch on it.

He still hissed despite the painkillers.

“Sorry,” she muttered.

“It's okay” he gasped.

She quickly finished with the wound and turned to the numerous other, less serious injuries.

“You had me worried there for while,” she said, talking in an attempt to cover up her worry about how close she'd come to losing him. “Thought I'd lost you.”

“It'll take more than a bombing run to finish me off,” Rex muttered, closing his eyes against the pain as she worked to heal him.

“Thank the force for that,” she mumbled quietly.

It took her almost twenty minutes to deal with all his wounds, by which time she'd exhausted his medpack.

Rex had remained silent throughout the ordeal, aside from the occasional hiss of pain.

“Right, that's the best I can do here, we need to get you back to camp for proper treatment as soon as possible, I don't like the look of that chest wound,” she said as the sounds of battle renewed in the distance.

Sighing quietly to herself, she was about to help Rex to his feet when she heard the sound of metal feet marching their way.

“Don't move,” she whispered to Rex as she moved to peek around the one remaining corner of the house, swearing quietly to herself when she saw a full platoon heading straight for them.

Deciding it was best to take the fight to them rather than to wait for them to reach them, where Rex would be almost defenceless, she drew her lightsabers and leapt out to meet them, using a strong force push to knock over the front lines, before diving in, slicing, slashing and chopping everything within reach.

In less than a minute, they were all destroyed, though she'd suffered a blaster burn across her side for her efforts.

But it wasn't serious, more an annoyance than anything else, so she quickly returned to Rex.

“We need to move, do you think you can walk?” Ahsoka asked.

“I can try,” Rex muttered and Ahsoka quickly helped him to his feet.

He hissed in pain but stayed up right with her assistance.

So, with him leaning heavily on her, they began to make their way back towards their lines. 

They didn't make it far before another droid patrol came through, forcing them to hide in one of the rain filled shell holes till they passed, by which time they were both shivering from the cold.

That happened several more times, until exhaustion and Rex's returning pain forced them to take shelter and rest for the night.

She checked his wounds again and was alarmed by the possible lines of infection that were already forming around his chest wound.

Then she remembered Kix saying something about how the mud on this world carried bugs that greatly accelerated infection in wounds, but there was nothing she could do to help him now, her medkit didn't have anything to treat infection, Rex would just have to hold on until they got back.

In the meantime, there was still a couple of things she could do for him.

“You hungry?” She asked, waving a ration pack in front of him.

When he nodded, she tore open the packet and helped him eat the tasteless paste, following it up with some water from his canteen.

When he was done, she rested his head on her lap, stroking his hair softly, using the force to send him to sleep.

We'll be alright Rex,” she whispered quietly as he moved fitfully in his sleep. “I promise.”

  


* * *

  


She didn't sleep a wink that night, too worried about being discovered by a droid patrol and Rex's worsening condition, so that by the time the sun came up, she was bleary eyed and almost nodding off.

But they had to keep going, Rex needed to get to a medbay as soon as possible or he'd probably die.

And that was something she wouldn't consider, not after what they'd told each other before this campaign, not after he'd confessed to loving her, something she'd never thought possible and she couldn't help the smile that formed on her face at the memory.

A smile that died when she saw just how much Rex had worsened during the night.

He was feverish, and almost delirious with infection when she woke him up, mumbling to himself and looking way too pale.

“Stay with me Rex,” she whispered, helping him to his feet.

“I'm not going anywhere,” he mumbled.

She supported him as they walked, stumbling through the mud and shell holes.

The fighting was still going on as well and every so often, a droid patrol would pass near them, forcing them to hide anywhere they could and each time it was harder to get going again.

By the forth time, Rex barely had the strength to stand and was rambling to himself, giving orders to people only he could see.

But what scared her most was when he went silent and just stumbled along beside her like a zombie and she was terrified he wasn't going to make it.

Eventually, he couldn't go on, incapable of taking even a single step and she had to stop and practically drag him to shelter in the ruins of what had once been a farm house.

Rex was barely even conscious at this point, mumbling and moaning to himself as she cleaned as much of the mud off them as she could.

“Stay with me Rex,” she whispered, moving him to rest on her lap, taking his hand and pressing a kiss to his forehead.

“I'm not going anywhere Commander,” he mumbled back in a rare moment of coherency, squeezing her hand.

She opened up her medkit and gave him her last shot of painkiller to help him sleep.

His breathing eased up pretty quickly and she felt him relax in the force.

“You'll be alright Rex,” she promised, eyes falling shut from exhaustion.

  


* * *

  


When she woke with a start several hours later, she immediately noticed Rex's breathing had worsened considerably.

It was a long rasping wheeze that sounded really painful.

“Rex?” She said, shaking him, but he didn't respond.

Then he took one last rattling breath and fell silent.

“Rex!” She screamed as his life force faded. “No no no no no, Rex!” she sobbed, trying to resuscitate him.

But to no avail.

“No, Rex!” she cried, injecting him with several stims. “You can't die!”

But they didn't help either.

Growing increasingly desperate as nothing she tried worked, she drew on the force with what little strength she had left and poured some of her life force into him in an attempt to heal him.

As she did it, an intense pain filled her body, like the force was using what little strength she had left in an attempt to heal him. She kept it going for almost a minute before she couldn't take it anymore and she had to stop, looking at him desperately to see if it had worked.

At first nothing happened and she sagged in despair, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks.

Then suddenly, he drew a deep, shuddering breath and began coughing.

Ahsoka let out a sob of relief and practically collapsed onto him as he continued to splutter, before she helped him sit up.

When he finally stopped coughing, she cradled him in her lap, tears of happiness streaming down her cheeks and dripping onto him.

He opened his eyes after a bit and they seemed clear of the feverish haze they had earlier when he looked up at her and smiled faintly.

“Hey,” he said weakly.

“Hey,” she replied with a watery smile, wiping her eyes. “I thought I'd lost you again,” she said with a sob.

“I'm not going anywhere,” Rex replied sleepily, taking one of her hands and squeezing it as tightly as he could. “In fact, I feel quite good actually, what did you do?”

“I'm not sure,” she said, running her free hand across his forehead. “I was kinda panicking, I thought you were dead, so I did something with the force and it worked,” she finished with a watery chuckle.

They stayed quiet for a while after that, both exhausted after their ordeal of the last couple of days and eventually fell asleep again. 

When they woke this time, it was just beginning to rain.

“We should get moving,” she sighed, shivering slightly in the wet. “We can't be too far from the base now.” 

“Alright,” Rex agreed with a groan and Ahsoka checked over his injuries, which looked marginally better after her force healing, then helped him to his feet again and they set off at their slow pace, towards the sound of distant fighting.

They kept going for several hours, drawing slowly closer to the battle, weaving their way through the shell holes that were slowly filling with water.

Until Ahsoka stepped into a small puddle that was deeper than it looked, sucking her leg in almost to her knee and causing lose her balance and fall to the side, dragging Rex down with her, his weight landing on her trapped leg and she let out a cry of agony as she felt her ankle snap beneath it. 

“I'm sorry, I'm sorry,” Rex gasped as he rolled himself off her.

“It wasn't your fault,” she whimpered, gingerly pulling her leg out of the hole. “I should have been paying attention.”

She let out another whimper as she caught sight of her ankle, which was bending at an unnatural angle from her leg. 

Then she let out a sob of frustration, they were so close to safety, why did this have to happen now?

“That looks bad,” Rex said quietly as he managed to prop himself up. “We'll need to bind it, otherwise it won't heal right.”

“Okay,” she gasped, then let out a shriek of pain as Rex gently moved her ankle back to it's right place without even warning her. 

“All done,” he told her sheepishly and she glared weakly at him.

Then he took off a couple of pieces of armour and used a piece of her leggings to make a makeshift brace for her ankle. 

Unfortunately, they were all out of painkillers and bacta patches so there wasn't much else he could do for her.

“Thanks,” she whispered when he finished, laying back in the mud, trying to use the force to dull the pain so that they could get moving again.

Beside her, Rex had collapsed as well, evidently having used up what little strength he had left helping her.

And the more Ahsoka thought about their situation, the funnier it seemed to become and before too long, she was laughing hysterically.

The laugh quickly changed to sobs however.

“What's wrong?” Rex asked quietly.

“It's just not fair,” she said when she go herself under control. “I wish this stupid war had never started.”

“Me too,” Rex sighed. “Though it's not all bad, after all, it's how I met you,” he added.

“True,” Ahsoka agreed with a weak smile, turning to look at him. “One of the few good things to come out of this disaster.”

She rolled onto her side so that she could look at him better, wincing slightly as she bumped her ankle and ran a hand over his cheek as he smiled faintly and pressed a kiss to it, before closing his eyes, sighing softly to himself.

“I'm glad I got to know you, Ahsoka,” he said quietly.

“Me too,” she whispered back, pressing a kiss to his cheek, before laying her head on his chest.

They lay like that for a while, neither having the energy to move.

Until, in the distance, they heard the sound of an approaching gunship.

“Is that what I think it is?” Ahsoka asked, not daring to hope.

“Yeah, I think it is,” Rex smiled, struggling into a sitting position.

Ahsoka sat up as well and turned in the direction she could hear it coming from.

After about a minute she thought she could make it out through the rain and gloom of the evening, going past about two or three hundred meters away.

“Wait!” She called out, standing and forgetting about her ankle until she put weight on it and collapsed again.

She let out a frustrated cry of pain and push herself back into a sitting position, drawing her lightsaber and waving it furiously to try and attract their attention.

It seemed to work, because the gunship banked suddenly and turned in their direction.

“They're coming!” she shouted excitedly to Rex, who looked relieved. “They're coming!”

The gunship reached them moments later and circled once before landing a few metres away.

Kix, Echo, Fives and Jesse came running out, followed closely by Anakin.

“Master!” she exclaimed happily, trying and failing to get up until Anakin reached her and pulled her into a hug.

“I was so worried about you,” he whispered, holding her tight.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “But I'm alright now, thought Rex is in bad shape,” she added worriedly

“Yes, he needs immediate medical attention,” Kix announced as Fives and Echo ran back to the gunship and returned with a stretcher.

Rex was quickly loaded into it and they pushed him into the gunship.

“And you look just as bad Commander,” Kix noted with concern.

“I'm fine,” she replied. “It's just my ankle.”

Kix looked at her ankle and grimaced and had another stretcher brought out for her, which Anakin helped her get on and pushed her into the gunship.

“Is Rex going to be okay?” She asked as they lifted off.

“Yeah, he should be,” Kix said, injecting her with something.

“What was that?” She asked tiredly.

“A sedative,” Kix replied. “You need the sleep.”

“But...” She trailed off, already feeling it's effects.

“It'll be alright,” Anakin said, giving her shoulder a squeeze. “And I'm right here.”

She tried to respond, but everything felt so heavy and she was warm and comfortable for the first time in days and drifted off without another word or complaint.

  


* * *

  


When Rex woke in the medbay several days later, he couldn't remember at first why he was there, then after a few minutes of dazed confusion, it all came back to him in a rush and he sighed in relief that it was all over.

Then he remembered Ahsoka and looked around, finding her sitting in the next bed over, talking to Fives, who was actually sitting on her bed, something that annoyed Rex for reasons he didn't quite understand.

So he cleared his throat and watched with no small amount of enjoyment as Fives shot to his feet and turned to face him.

“Morning Captain,” Fives said, saluting out of reflex. “It's good to see you awake again.”

“It's good to be awake, how long was I out for?” Rex asked.

“A couple of days,” Fives replied. “You were in pretty bad shape, Kix had to keep you under just to make sure you healed properly.”

“Well, I feel fine now,” Rex replied, moving to get out of bed, not entirely sure what he wanted to do other than to just get up.

“I wouldn't,” Fives warned. “Ahsoka already tried and Kix sedated her, he's really gone overboard on the mother hen routine.”

“Yeah, I only wanted to stretch my legs,” Ahsoka grumbled.

“Next time, wait until your broken ankle has healed before you try to walk on it then,” Kix said walking in.

He gave them both a quick check up and seemed almost disappointed that they were fine, before leaving with Fives in tow.

“Are you really alright?” Ahsoka asked quietly when they were gone.

“Yeah, a little sore, but otherwise I feel fine,” he assured her.

“Good,” she said with a relieved sigh. “I thought I was going to lose you for a while, 

“I'm not going anywhere,” Rex smiled.

“You better not,” Ahsoka warned with a grin, before glancing quickly at Kix's office and getting out of bed, hobbling over to his bed.

Rex scooted over so that she could sit beside him, but still gave her a nervous look.

“What?” She asked.

“You're not worried someone might catch us?” Rex asked.

“I don't care anymore,” she replied, kissing him lightly on the lips. “And besides, it's only your brothers and Anakin that might find out and we both know his secret,” She added with a grin, snuggling into his chest.

“I suppose that wouldn't be so bad,” Rex murmured quietly, enjoying the feel of Ahsoka against him. He could get used to this.

“Me too,” she replied sleepily, reading his mind again like she always seemed to.

And despite having slept for the last two days, Rex felt tired again and his eyelids began to droop and before he knew it, he was snoring softly against Ahsoka's montral.

  


* * *

  


“Thank you Masters,” Anakin nodded as they finished giving their reports on the state of the campaign, which was almost over now that Masters Windu and Secura's forces had joined the battle. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on my Padawan.”

“Of course,” Obi-Wan said, waving him off.

Anakin gave a brief bow, before rushing from the room and down to the medbay.

He burst into the room without thinking and froze when he caught sight of Ahsoka and Rex in bed together, sleeping peacefully.

“About time,” he muttered quietly, smirking to himself, before leaving the room.

He paused outside the medbay to comm Kix to tell him to keep people out of the medbay for the rest of the day, then walked off, humming quietly to himself.

He couldn't wait to tell Barriss.


End file.
